OVERLOADED SCHOOL SYLLABUS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1801, 14 July 1913, Page 4

OVERLOADED SCHOOL SYLLABUS.

A SOIL SURVEY NEEDED.' Mr. Walter A. Jones, of- Mokau, sends this reply:— I.—No. The children in the State schools to-day are not getting such an education as will lit them lor a country lil'e. Huy I go further and say that with tho present congested syllabus the primary schools are usurping the lunctions of tho secondary schools and the time which should bo spent in obtaining a thorough knowledge of tho threo "It's" is wasted in an endeavour to assimilate a mass ,of knowledge which in times passed was reserved tor those who wero prepared to spend lengthened years in acquiring it. To-ask a child to learn, during tho years usually spent at school by tho farmers' sons, all that is offered to it is imposing too great a task. To ask that all children should stay on tit school until they have a thorough grasp of tho subjects attempted to be taught to-day is to suggest an economic waste that no Stato can afford. Simplify the syllabus and give especially to the country boy some teaching beyond that which ho gets now, regarding our great mother, tho Xiartli. and tho simple mysteries of tho processes by which she feeds her children. 2.—No. Means of communication and transport aro in too primitive a stato to allow of seller and buyer compig together as they should do ill a country dependent on the primary industries to tho extent that this country is. 3.—Roads and railway services aro decidedly unsatisfactory. 4.—Postal services satisfactory and telephones also. 5. Tho shows aro of direct benefit. 6.—On tho whole, yes; but also to a very great extent indirectly by fostering a dosiro for further knowledge of soil processes and also perhaps by fostering a spirit of- emulation among thoso who watch the operations of ,tho officers of tho Department, who could, perhaps, reader an even greater service to tho State by urging tho need of a soil survey of the country generally even if only to tho extent of a simple standard applicable to work of preparing Crown lands for selection. Most countries liaVo some sort of survey or classification of soils,- and wo appear to lie so far behind in this matter that a reference to Crown lands guide does not give the least idea as to whether the lands described therein aro calcareous or any other class of soil. 10.—Labour conditions are satisfactory. 11.—The betterment of tho means of transport, primarily tho making and metalling of roads and tho construction of bridges.